Attention First Time Buyers By Candee Wilson At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

In many real estate markets, especially along the East and West coasts, first time homebuyers are finding it harder and harder to purchase a home. As an exclusive buyers agent who works primarily with first time buyers, I have encountered the frustration of many buyers who couldn't find the "home of their dreams" at a price they could afford.

The key to their frustration is in the phrase, "home of their dreams." Most first time buyers today want, at a minimum, a new or near new, single-family, 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in move-in condition on a large lot in a good area of town. They want what their parents have, what their parents worked years to acquire. Sorry, kids, this type of home isn't and never was a first time buyer home. This is a move-up home for those who bought small 2-bedroom, 1-bath bungalows or attached housing when it was affordable. Unfortunately, even smaller homes are unaffordable to many first time buyers today, especially if they have additional debt such as car payments, student loans and credit card debt.

So what's a person to do to get into their first home?

1.Think older; think smaller. In the 1950's, hundreds of thousands of vets returning from World War II purchased their first homes -- small, 2- and 3-bedroom, 1-bath homes that families of 4 and 5 lived in for many years before moving to a larger home, a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home. These small homes are still around and ideal for first time buyers to get their foot in the real estate door.

2.Think fixers. There are plenty of homes out there that can be purchased for below-market prices just because they need updating. They're perfectly livable and can be fixed up over time as the money permits.

3.Think shared housing. Compatible individuals who want to own a home can start out as co-owners of a home. Two incomes may allow both to get their foot in the door of home ownership that their individual incomes would not. Since this would be, more or less, a business arrangement, an agreement would have to be reached prior to purchase outlining each person’s responsibilities and obligations as well as the disposition of the property under certain described circumstances.

4.Think multi-family. A duplex or tri-plex allows you to live in one unit and rent out the other(s) to cover a greater part of the mortgage making owning more affordable.

5.Think manufactured homes. These aren't homes on wheels. Modern manufactured homes on their own land are spacious, well-built with all the desirable amenities, and affordable. FHA financing lets you get into these with as little as 3% down.

There's more than one way to open the front door to home ownership if you stop dreaming and come down to earth. Everyone has to start somewhere, and that usually isn't at the top. Your first home is just that -- A FIRST HOME. Statistics say you will own 5 homes in your lifetime. Some will own less; some will own more. However, if you wait to find the "home of your dreams," you may never be able to afford a home of your own.

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